Client strategies

At 2 p.m. EST tomorrow experts will provide insight on the fate of the mandate for individuals to purchase health coverage, and the finding on the constitutionality of PPACA as a whole. Sign up for the web seminar which will be held hours after the decision is released.

There is a lot riding on the Supreme Court’s health reform decision for all stakeholders. Brokers and consultants need to be prepared to advise their clients, says EBA Advisory Board member Mark Gaunya, who highlights what you should be thinking about while we wait for the decision.

The annual MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends, which tracks major trends and attitudes on the subject of employee benefits, was recently released and it has a good news/bad news message for employers. EBA contributor Ron Leopold shares five ways progressive employers stand out in the benefits arena.

One broker looks at how his company walks the talk with wellness programs and says how that can work for all your clients.

Brokers play a key role in helping plan sponsors establish a healthier workplace, but one main problem still affects employers today — dealing with the lack of resources that are available to improve employee health and productivity at the workplace, according to a white paper from The Standard.

Two years after President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, the U.S. Supreme Court this month will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the individual mandate that requires all individuals who can afford it to buy health insurance. The Court will also determine whether the Medicaid expansion is constitutional, which may affect employers with retiree health care plans. The majority of employers, however, are attuned to the Court's decision on the individual mandate and how much of the law will survive if that provision is found unconstitutional. Whatever the Supreme Court ultimately decides in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, here EBA outlines each potential ruling concerning the constitutionality of the individual mandate and how it affects plan sponsors and advisers alike.

Common sense seems to be in short supply these days, especially when it comes to application of the rules under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Here’s a case in point: we’ve heard that some accountants have made the Act’s so-called Cadillac Tax a focus point of their current accounting protocol for retiree health plans. …

Employer-sponsored plans — especially 401(k)s — help employees at the lower end of the wage scale to save.

Can you imagine a world where the “new norm” required insurers and providers to disclose what they charge upfront? Read as Mark Gaunya, president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Underwriters, shares two specific messages he took to the Hill at the Cap Conference and the outcome.

Question: Amid all the changes the health insurance industry is undergoing, are there any trends in 2012 that brokers and agents can embrace to counter shrinking commissions and evaporating accounts? It’s been almost two years since the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and employers are still looking for solutions to their health benefits concerns. As a result, I see two major trends defining both the economic environment and the business opportunities that…

While 88% of small business owners do not think it is right for the government to force a state resident to buy health insurance, more than 90% of them do not intend on purchasing health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Like a lot of companies, Veridian Credit Union wants its employees to be healthier. In January, the Waterloo, Iowa-company rolled out a wellness program and voluntary screenings.

The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was the wake-up call our industry needed. On March 23, 2010, brokers woke up to realize that our livelihood could be wiped out with a swipe of the President’s pen. However, for far too long, many of us were reluctant to face the other threats that existed on traditional business practices. …

Offset the impact of health care reform on your bottom line by adapting well to the new environment.

Experience with the health insurance exchanges in Massachusetts and Utah suggest these reform mechanisms will retain a strong need for brokers to provide buyers with market education and guidance.

Despite concerns about the impact of rising health care costs on their businesses and employees, only one in six employers (16%) say they favor a federally funded universal health care system, according to the 2011 UBA Benefits Opinion Survey from United Benefit Advisors.

Unanswered questions and unknown repercussions abound as regulators continue to flesh out the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act framework. For employers, it is a frustrating time of uncertainty and confusion.

Despite efforts to defund PPACA in the Republican-controlled House, and prospects of a Supreme Court test for the federal health reform law, employers are forging ahead as best they can with short-term compliance issues and long-term strategic decisions.

Beginning in 2014 all employers with at least 50 employees must buy comprehensive heath insurance for all full-time employees or pay a penalty of $2,000 dollars per employee.